Latest Gear

Here's a Guitar World video from the 2013 Winter NAMM Show, which took place January 24 to 27 in Anaheim, California. During the gear-filled weekend, we paid a visit to the gang at the Blackstar Amplification booth to check out the company's new ID Series guitar amps. For more about the series, head to blackstaramps.com.

FLEXeFX has re-imagined the guitar effects pedal by introducing foot wheels that allow guitarists to control their sound in real time with their feet, without bending over or taking their hands away from their instrument. The company also has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the new project.

So you’re out hunting for strings. Rather than go with some fly-by-night brand that’s been in the string business for only 100 years, let’s take a look at La Bella. They’ve been making violin strings since the 1640s! The company could just sit around at its headquarters in Newburgh, New York, where it makes its strings, but it keeps churning out new ideas. Recently I got the chance to test drive the company's new White Nylon Tapewound bass strings.

Aerosmith’s Tom Hamilton has been playing G&L ASAT Basses for nearly 20 years — ever since he bought his first blue metal flake ASAT bass at 48th Street Custom Guitars in New York City. Since then, G&L has built several more ASAT basses in a variety of finishes, but there’s something about G&L’s over-the-top metal flake finishes that keeps him coming back for more.

Decibel Eleven has introduced the Pedal Palette, the first fully analog loop bypass switcher, router and mixer. It provides guitar players with the ability to instantly swap pedal effects order at any time. Features include four pedal effects loops with true relay bypass, ability to swap pedal order instantly and assign any effects loop to parallel mix bus. Also includes optional Class A discrete input buffer, ability to store and recall up to 128 preset configurations and sync multiple Pedal Palettes with MIDI.

Warwick's Streamer Series is expanding with a new model — the Streamer CV (Classic Vintage). The ergonomically shaped body of the Streamer CV is made of lightweight US swamp ash. The one-piece maple neck fretted version comes with a rosewood fretboard; the fretless version offers a Tigerstripe Ebony fretboard. The 21 Jumbo Bronze frets get installed and perfectly dressed with Warwick’s innovative Invisible Fret Technology.

Fender pays tribute to Eric Clapton’s “Brownie” Fender Stratocaster with the release of its Fender Custom Shop Eric Clapton “Brownie” Tribute Stratocaster. It will be available exclusively through Guitar Center on March 21 as part of the Guitar Center Eric Clapton Crossroads Collection. The original Brownie is most famous for its use on seminal 1970 Derek and the Dominos recording Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.